Abbess Catherine

Abbess Catherine is one of the minor characters in ‘Casanova in Paris’. Casanova has arranged with the Abbess to hide Gabrielle in the convent of which she is the head. To a modern audience the abbess seems to be rather unhinged: a schizophrenic who believes that since childhood she has harboured within her the soul

Castrati

Casanova had a number of encounters with castrati during his life, most notably Bellino. Amongst castrati, Farinelli was regarded as one of the greatest. Here’s a very readable article about Farinelli and the world of the castrati by Ivan Hewett from ‘The Daily Telegraph’. ‘The Prologue', and chapters 1 to 5 of 'Casanova in Paris:

‘Broken on the wheel’

Of the complaints against the Ancien Regime from those in the vanguard of the Enlightenment, very high on the list was the cruel and arbitrary nature of the legal system. In his memoirs, Casanova describes the notorious execution of Robert Damiens as an ‘offence to our common humanity’. A case that in some ways

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